Greenbrier Classic interview: Jonas Blixt

MODERATOR: Okay, we'll get started. We would like to welcome the 2013 Greenbrier Classic champion Jonas Blixt into the interview room. Jonas, that's a beautiful trophy sitting in front of you. Tell us what that means to have it in your possession right now.

JONAS BLIXT: This is what I play for. I play to win and I mean it just confirms that you're doing the right things and that you work hard and dreams can come true if you work hard and keep at it.

MODERATOR: It was a wild and crazy day with all of the weather, with the darkness. Just talk a little bit about what it was like out there.

JONAS BLIXT: I was kind of anxious to get out there. You know, when you get those weather delays, you sit around, you want to get out there, you want to prove what you've got, a lot of thoughts going through your mind. When it comes down to it, you go out there and try to be a professional golfer and do your best and some days work out really well.

MODERATOR: Before we open it up to questions, every interview you did you talked about how you can't wait to see your family. How special will that be?

JONAS BLIXT: I mean, I miss them a lot and it's not quite the celebration that I had at the Frys, but I'll make sure we celebrate when Iget home, yeah.

Q. Did it affect you at all, Jonas? Not the weather so much but the darkness, because I know Johnson Wagner was saying he much more would have preferred if they played threesomes early to get this in sooner.

JONAS BLIXT: I don't know. If I had longer putts on the last few holes, maybe I would have, but I think it was quite all right. Can't blame my putt miss on 17 for that. No, I think the weather kind of played out in my advantage. It's kind of a Swedish summer weather you guys had today and I just felt very comfortable with the rough the way it was because I played a lot out of it. The way the golf course set up and the greens and everything, it couldn't have played out any better for me. Yeah, the weather played a big role.

Q. You mentioned Frys and I know you had a lot of family and everything there, but this time you seem a lot more emotional in kind of a different way. Do you feel that way?

JONAS BLIXT: Yeah, it's just been a hard year. I just haven't played that well and it just feels really weird, missing the cut last week and I felt like the ball was going everywhere, trying to find some stuff going into this week and kept working on it, never really felt that I got, you know, that slot in my swing where I can just rip at it. It was kind of constant work. I don't know what it was, someone must have looked down on me and said the ball's going to go in the right direction. My putting and my lob wedge, Cobra Puma's done a great job working out the lob wedge deal and I couldn't be happier. Yes, the putter I've been playing, I mean, it's great for me at least, very happy about it.

Q. You mentioned your family and when is the last time you saw them?

JONAS BLIXT: I saw them right after -- I was in Sweden and played the Scandinavian Masters, which was not that long ago, it was a month and a half ago.

But the thing is, this kind of means -- last year I was hurt for two and a half months and that's why I didn't play this week last year. This kind of means that I can relax a little bit. You know, it's a big hunt during the year trying to get into the FedExCup Playoffs. Not that the hunt is over but it means that maybe I can take a week off and go back and see them and make a little more time for them instead of looking forward to seeing them at Christmas.

Q. You mentioned not playing well coming into this tournament, really for most of the year. Did you have any inkling this was coming this week?

JONAS BLIXT: Nope, not at all. I played really well in the Crowne Plaza and the Scandinavian Masters, really excited about that part. Took a week and a half off and came back and worked with my coach. We did some stuff that I should be doing and I feel like it's just been like my game's just not been on. It reflected in the score, what I shot last week. I mean, short game was still sharp that week, but I didn't know where my miss was. Kind of narrowed it down, I had a good range session with one of the caddies out here, he used to be a swing coach, Bill Harkey, and he kind of helped me out, got me back on track a little bit. Then I worked some other stuff out with my coach over the cell phone and the video. Luckily we've got technology that enables us to do it.

Q. A little bit of a roller coaster ride, so I'll segue into if you can tell the roller coaster story.

JONAS BLIXT: Absolutely. My best buddy back home, we went to college together and we were getting a little chubby so we thought maybe we should cut down on soda a little bit. We made a bet that the first one to drink soda has to go on a two-hour roller coaster ride in a row. I couldn't stay away from Coke and I had a really bad year, so I was drinking Coke, I finished2nd and I got to pay for it this year. I don't recommend doing it, I felt like you probably would today after the Fourth of July if you really had a big one, quite dizzy there for an hour and a half, two hours afterwards. But you've got to pay your bets.

Q. After your birdie on 16, how long was it beforeyou were aware that you had a two-shot lead at that point after Wagner had bogeyed 15?

JONAS BLIXT: I kind of looked at the scoreboard there on 16 before I hit that putt and I saw I was tied. Didn't do anything to me emotionally. I just felt like I had a pretty good line on it and I had two putts earlier that nine that I just hit them through the break. I just kind of focused on having a good speed on the putt and trying to start it on line and that was the difference between missing and making it. That was just a good putt.

Q. Were you aware on 17 and 18 as you were getting ready to tee off, on the tee shot on 18, there was a rainbow there, you remember hitting into a rainbow?

JONAS BLIXT: I didn't see it on 18.

Q. There was one there on 18, you were hitting right into the rainbow.

JONAS BLIXT: Okay. I'll be honest, I was quite nervous today because I didn't feel too great about my game, but I saw it on 17 when I was walking up to my third shot, but after that I was just kind of, you call it in the zone. I didn't see too many things.